CARL EDWARDS AND HIS PRESIDENTIAL BLOODLINE

BOSTON -- With the next presidential election months away and the candidates all but locked in, it may be too late for Carl Edwards to throw his hat in the ring for this year, but there's still hope for 2020.

After all, it does run in the family.

Edwards revealed Tuesday during a historic visit to the Massachusetts capital that he's related to our nation's 19th president.

"Rutherford B. Hayes is somehow my great, great, great grandfather," Edwards said Tuesday at the USS Constitution Museum. "It's funny, my first tour of the White House, we were walking in … they have that room where they have things displayed from all of the different presidents and I walked by it and somebody pointed out (his photo) and said, 'Hey, look, he's ugly, too.' … So yeah, that's that."

We'll admit ol' Rutherford wasn't much of a looker, but did have a pretty gnarly beard.

Either way, it's a pretty neat piece of history that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver could someday share with the next president after he or she is elected in November -- assuming he's able to lock up his first career Sprint Cup Series championship a few weeks later atHomestead-Miami Speedway and gets the presidential invite.

NASCAR suspends Kyle Larson’s crew chief for lug nut violation at Pocono

For the third time in the past four Sprint Cup points races, a crew chief has been suspended for a lug nut violation.

Chad Johnston, who helms Kyle Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet, was suspended through June 15 by NASCAR for a missing lug nut after Monday’s Axalta 400 at Pocono Raceway. That will sideline Johnston this weekend at Michigan International Speedway, where the Sprint Cup Series will race Sunday.

A spokesman for Chip Ganassi Racing said the team won’t appeal the penalty. The team hasn’t announced an interim crew chief.

Johnston also was placed on probation through Dec. 31 and fined $20,000. He became the fourth crew chief suspended under the new lug nut policy that was implemented for the May 1 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Adam Stevens, crew chief for Kyle Busch, missed the Dover International Speedway weekend after Busch’s winning Toyota at Kansas Speedway was ruled to have violated the rule. Last week at Pocono Raceway, Tony Gibson (Kurt Busch) and Randall Burnett (A.J. Allmendinger) were absent for violations discovered after the Coca-Cola 600. Busch won at Pocono with interim crew chief Johnny Klausmeier in place of Gibson.

After a down 2015, Roush Fenway Racing drivers enjoying ‘new normal’

There’s a “new normal” at Roush Fenway Racing.

After a dismal 2015 there’s more structure, less finger-pointing and all three teams are competing toward the front.

To top it off, Trevor Bayne is getting some sleep.

“Last year I feel like I had to beat myself up a little bit,” Bayne recently told NBC Sports. “I’d be looking at data and having sleepless nights trying to figure how I could drive the car different, and now this year that we have faster cars, I feel like I can kinda do what I know how to do naturally.”

Bayne is 20th in the Sprint Cup standings after 14 races. At this point last year, his first full season with Roush, he was 30th. Heading to Michigan International Speedway, Bayne has one top five and two top-1o finishes.

The biggest sign of improved speed for Roush is in qualifying. Bayne has advanced to the second round of qualifying 10 times and the final round five times. Bayne has an average start of 16.8. His average last year was 27.9.

“Last season I feel like qualifying was one of the hardest parts of my weekend,” Bayne said. “We would be 30th, you know? Hardly making the second round at times, and this season we’ve made it to the final round almost every week, and I think (crew chief) Matt (Puccia) does a really good job.”

The improvements are even more significant for fourth-year driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Stenhouse has started in the top 10 seven times. Last year, Stenhouse started in the top 10 just three times. For the Coca-Cola 600, all three of Roush’s car qualified in the top 10 for the first time since 2013 at Chicagoland Speedway.

“The new normal at Roush Fenway is everybody is working together,” Stenhouse told NBC Sports. “It’s not blaming this department or this department … I feel like everyone has been hands on, in the ditch with each other, you know digging and trying to claw our way out of this and I think it’s been showing.”

Greg Biffle‘s best finish through 14 races is 11th in the Coke 600, which he started a season-best sixth in.

“We’re definitely on an upswing, especially the 16 team,” Biffle told NBC Sports. “The problem is we don’t have any results to show for it. Meaning we’re not able to close right now. So, we’re getting to the three-quarter point in the race, things are happening, we’re getting involved in stuff. Or particularly Dover, the big wreck. Probably had one of the best cars we did all season.”

Biffle isn’t sitting by as the team tries to return to the level of competition it enjoyed when he started racing full-time for Roush in 2003.

That’s included Biffle coordinating pit stop practices among the teams and driving the pit stop car. It’s one way Biffle has committed to show he’s in “100 percent” to build Roush back up.

“I took charge and went down to pit stop practice and told the guys, ‘Hey, I’m going to be here every week for the next month, or one day a week, and I’m going to drive the pit stop car and we’re going to practice other things,’ ” Biffle said. “I recognized that they were kind of stuck in the same old routine and it needed to be changed up. And it brought so much energy and life back into my team that at Dover we had the best pit stops we’ve had in six months. And so then I went to Trevor and Ricky and asked them to do the same thing with their team.”

The more cohesive operation at Roush has the team the closest it’s been to consistently competing since Carl Edwards won at Sonoma Raceway in 2014. It’s seen Bayne, who hasn’t won since his 2011 Daytona 500 upset, lead a career-high 22 laps at Talladega Superspeedway to make his season total 34, also a career best.

After struggling in the back of the pack in 2015, Roush is showing signs it can turn its “new normal” into the kind of success Mark Martin helped create for the team during the height of his Hall of Fame career in the 1990s.

“It takes time to catch up and it’s hard to catch up,” Bayne said. “The guys that you’re trying to beat are also getting better. So you have to make huge gains to do what we’re doing this season.”

Car owner Chip Ganassi calls ‘whole lug nut thing a silly thing’

Car owner Chip Ganassi called crew chief suspensions in NASCAR “complete silliness’’ and said the “whole lug nut thing is a silly thing’’ during an interview Wednesday night on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Ganassi’s comments on “Dialed In” came on the same day NASCAR suspended one of his crew chiefs, Chad Johnston, for not having all the lug nuts properly secured on Kyle Larson’s car Monday at Pocono Raceway. Johnston will miss this weekend’s race at Michigan International Speedway.

Johnston is the fourth crew chief to be suspended a race since the policy was enacted six weeks ago. NASCAR issued the new mandate shortly after Tony Stewart blasted series officials for their lack of policing pit stops for missing lug nuts.

Ganassi told host Claire B. Lang on Wednesday that the new policy has steered the conversation of the sport in a direction he doesn’t think it needs to go.

“I just think the whole lug nut thing is a silly thing,’’ Ganassi said. “We’re in a major sport that on any given weekend we have over 100,000 people that show up and watch and it’s the most-watched sport on television sometimes on the weekend and we’re sitting here talking about lug nuts. Are you kidding me? Please.

“They need to move the conversation. I’m saying NASCAR needs to move the conversation to something a little more relevant than lug nuts.’’

Ganassi was then asked about replacing Johnston for the weekend.

“We have qualified people that will be there,’’ he said. “That’s the other thing is these suspensions, you can have the guy on the phone, you can have him on the computer, but he can’t be at the track. What’s the point of being suspended? You really could probably suspend everybody on the team except the pit crew. It’s silliness. It’s complete silliness.’’

Kurt Busch won last weekend at Pocono Raceway without crew chief Tony Gibson, who had been suspended one race for a lug nut violation.

So if not lug nuts, what should be the topic of conversation be in NASCAR, Lang asked Ganassi.

“I think all sports are challenged with how to grow their sport,’’ he said. “We’re on the backend of the baby-boom generation. All these sports were built on the baby-boom generation and there just aren’t the fans following any sport as much as they used to. There just aren’t the people behind the baby-boom generation that are watching television or watching sports. There seems to be this trend toward participation sports, not viewing sports.

“We need to do a good job of telling young people that cars are still fun. I think sometimes between the government and Detroit … we teach young people that cars are really just a transportation things from Point A to Point B and pretty soon you’ll be able to do it with a driverless car. I think we’re missing the point here. There are a hell of a lot of people out there that need to realize that cars can still be fun to drive. That driving of a car can be appreciated and can be respected and can be applauded. That’s what racing is all about.’’

NASCAR America: Radioactive Pocono

The Tricky Triangle of Pocono lived up to its name on Monday after weekend rain pushed the start of the Sprint Cup race back a day. Go inside driver and team communications to see how Kurt Busch was able to take the checkered flag.

NASCAR’s weekend schedule in Michigan and Texas

All three of NASCAR’s nationals series will be in action this week, but they will be roughly 1,145 miles apart. While the Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series bring their talents to Michigan International Speedway, the Camping World Truck Series will be getting reacquainted with Texas Motor Speedway.

Here’s the full weekend schedule for NASCAR, including TV and radio information.

All times are Eastern.

Michigan International Speedway

Friday, June 10

8 a.m.  – 6 p.m. – Sprint Cup garage open

9:30 a.m. – 7 p.m. – Xfinity garage open

11 a.m. – 12: 25 p.m. – Sprint Cup practice (Fox Sports 1, Motor Racing Network)

12:30 – 1:25 p.m. – Xfinity practice (FS1)

3 – 3:55 p.m. – Final Xfinity practice (FS1)

4:15 p.m. – Sprint Cup qualifying; three rounds/multi-car (FS1, MRN)

Saturday, June 11

7 a.m. – Xfinity garage open

7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup garage open

9 – 9:55 a.m. – Sprint Cup practice (FS1, MRN)

10 a.m. – Xfinity qualifying; two rounds/single car (FS1)

11:45 a.m. – Xfinity driver-crew chief meeting

12 – 12:55 p.m. – Final Sprint Cup practice (FS1, MRN)

1 p.m. – Xfinity driver introductions

1:30 p.m. – Menards 250 presented by Valvoline; 125 laps, 250 miles (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Sunday, June 12

7 a.m. – Sprint Cup garage opens

11 a.m. – Driver-crew chief meeting

12:25 p.m. – Driver introductions

1 p.m. – FireKeepers 400; 200 laps, 400 miles (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Texas Motor Speedway

Thursday, June 9

12:30 – 10 p.m. – Truck series garage open

3:30 – 4:25 p.m. – Truck practice (No TV)

5:30 – 6:25 p.m. – Truck practice (No TV)

7:30 – 8:55 p.m. – Final Truck practice (No TV)

Friday, June 10

1 p.m. – Truck garage opens

6 p.m. – Truck qualifying; two rounds/single car (FS1 will air at 7:30 p.m.)

7:30 p.m. – Driver-crew chief meeting

8:40 p.m. – Driver introductions

9 p.m. – Rattlesnake 400; 167 laps, 250.5 miles (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Aric Almirola’s Darlington car honors Richard Petty’s 6th Daytona 500 win

The 1979 Daytona 500 is considered one of the most important events in the history of NASCAR.That race marked the first time the Daytona 500 was broadcast flag-to-flag on national TV. Sixteen million people tuned in to see Richard Petty win his sixth Daytona 500 after race leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed on the final lap.The win was also Petty’s first after going winless in 1978.Now the paint scheme that covered Petty’s 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass on that February afternoon will return on Aric Almirola‘s No. 43 Ford for the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.“I’m excited to run the 1979 STP paint scheme this year at Darlington,” said Almirola in a press release. “We had a lot of fun with the throwback theme last year, and it should be fun to throwback again this year. It makes the race so special. There are so many great STP paint schemes over the years, which makes it special for our team to run throwbacks; 1979 was definitely a breakout season when it comes to catapulting the sport into the mainstream, so it’s cool to recognize that this year with our throwback scheme.”The paint scheme will have also be used to promote the Victory Junction camp.A dollar amount showing the amount of money raised by STP customers for Victory Junction will be featured on the rear quarter panel of the car. STP launched the “Giving Kids an Ultra Summer” program on June 1 and will donate $o.43 for every bottle of STP Ultra 5-in-1 Fuel System Cleaner sold through August 31.The Southern 500 is scheduled for Sept. 4 on NBC.